UK MF Global Clients & FSA Protection

But there is something else. In the days after MF Global collapsed, the word in London was that the Financial Services Authority had acquitted itself rather well. It had become aware of the problems in the American parent, and demanded much tighter safeguards in the UK to protect British clients. It moved early to avoid a repeat of the Lehman fiasco, where New York sucked billions out of London over its last fateful weekend. The implication was that whatever might have happened in the US where the bulk of the activities took place, the UK arm should emerge relatively unscathed.

But last weekâs liquidatorâs statement told a rather different story. It said that so far UK clients have got back only a quarter of their money compared with three quarters in the US and almost all of it in Canada. It may be the disparity is accounted for solely by the different pace of the winding-up process in the various regimes, but that is rather a brave bet. The more likely explanation is that the UK clients stand to take a massive hit despite the regulatorâs best efforts to protect them.